Caffeine
by seizenber
Summary: Sequel of Broken/ After Winter Cup between Seirin VS Touou, Akashi met again with Momoi. And the coffee which had been ordered by him was reminding him of something—or someone.


_**Caffeine**_

_Presented by __**seizenber**_

It had been a year since the last times he saw all of his comrades in Teiko. He sat on the bleachers with all of his teammates from Rakuzan. The sound of audiences could be heard when Seirin's ace, Kagami, could make another shot to chase Touou's score which made by Aomine. What an amazing match, it was his first time to see both team's ace were in the zone at the same time. And couldn't be denied that either Kagami or Aomine were stronger than the match in Interhigh.

And then he saw her. She sat on the bench with coach Harasawa beside her. She looked like talking about something to the coach and Akashi was sure that she gave all of her information about their opponent to her coach from the way her eyes looked at Seirin. Something about her that couldn't be forgotten by himself. Sometimes he also confused why he still remembered about her habit.

He snorted and shook his head on the sly, trying to forget about the last thing that popped up from his mind. He had promised to himself after their meeting in the last day of their time in Teiko that he wouldn't think about his ex manager anymore. It seemed like something was going to give probably. Maybe his sanity or else.

Finally the match was over. And the result really amazed him for goodness sake. For the first time in his life, he never saw the ace of Generation of Miracles was defeated by someone so called as the miracles that couldn't be part of Generation of Miracles. Akashi also knew that it was the first time for Aomine himself. What an awful match for that tanned boy.

"Akashi, why are you still here? We have to go now or our train to Kyoto will—"

"You guys go first," he interrupted, "Tell the coach I'll be at Kyoto two days later. I have something to do first here."

"Well, if so, we go home now."

After they were leaving him alone, Akashi still looked down on the court where Seirin still focused on their miracle match today. Meanwhile he also realized that Touou were gone to nowhere, perhaps into their locker room. As the strong team, moreover with Aomine as the first string player, he thought he could understand enough that this match was suck for them. Especially for Aomine.

He stood and walked away to leave the Tokyo Gymnasium. And as he came out from the gymnasium, he saw her again. She looked like … well, she looked okay actually for someone who just defeated by a newbie team like Seirin. He was sure that he saw she smiled widely like nothing happened.

_That smile_. The smile he had always seen for countless times until he made it disappeared from her lips.

She stopped her step when realized who was standing in front of her. She didn't look surprise at all because at first she had guessed that Akashi would come to see this match. Moreover it was the match between Aomine versus Kagami. They still looked at each other without any word came out from their lips.

She cleared her throat. "Hello, it's been a while since our graduation."

"Yes," that was all he could say to her. He also didn't know the best sentence to reply her.

"So…, you watched the match?" he nodded, "Alone? I thought you would come here with your teammates."

"They went home few minutes ago," he said meanwhile she just nodded. And then the silent filled their atmosphere again. Ugh, how could it come to the most awkward moment for them? They should be okay even though just talking about something alone like this, just two of them. They always did it since they were former captain-manager in Teiko.

"Where's Daiki?" finally he found another topic.

"He … you know, he needs his time alone now after this match. It's hard for him to accept all of this, but I think it's better for him at least to make him stop for skip practicing."

"Oh."

_So that's her reason to smile like that._

"Um, why you are still here meanwhile the others went home?" she asked.

"I have to meet my father tonight," he said, "Anyway I want to drink something in the café next here."

"Oh, okay. If so, see you next time—"

"No, I mean…," He paused as he looked at her in the eyes, "Do you mind if you come with me to the café now?"

She gasped. "I beg your pardon?"

"I want you to come with me to the café now. You know, we can drink or eat something there."

"Oh, well," she nodded, "Okay. I will tell Dai-_chan_ first to go with us—"

"No," he interrupted her, "I mean, just both of us. Alone."

She stunned of his answer.

.

.

.

Here they were now. They sat opposite each other on the lounger of the café near the large windows. The waitress brought them their orders; black coffee and cherry sundae. He looked at Momoi who kept busy herself with eating her cherry sundae, trying to avoid his gaze. He also didn't know why he kept looking at her even though his mind told him to turn his gaze toward the view out there.

He decided to sip his black coffee instead to look at her like that again. Honestly, he rarely consumed beverage such a black coffee like this because it was full of caffeine and could ruin his healthy life. But somehow he needed this now, no idea about the purpose of drinking it. He would like to drink a green tea rather than coffee.

Even though he sipped the coffee, his eyes couldn't stop to look at her. Seeing her was like caffeine for him. It was making him insomnia since the last day he decided to leave her and went to Kyoto with thought that everything would be alright even though they separated, but he was wrong.

She affected his health. He lost his appetite and his time for practicing was not as much as he had when he was still in Teiko. Even though his grades were getting better every day, he could admit at least to himself that she was always there for him, exactly in his mind.

And also she could make him addicted of her. The thought of he could live in safe and sound without her, it was really wrong. Perhaps he acted like he was okay, but he was Akashi. He could use his mask and pretended as usual that his life should be like this so it wouldn't affect him so much. But he couldn't stop to think about her like "Is she okay since entering high school? Is she becoming a manager for Touou's basket team? Does she have many friends now? Or the worse of all is she dating with Daiki since I broke up with her?"

Sounded so cheesy and out of character, but hey! He was still human and he had his own right to care for someone even though didn't show it directly.

"… Akashi-_kun_? Are you okay?"

Her voice woke him up from his daydream. "Uh, I apologize. Do you say something?"

"Well," she paused, "I said that it's almost evening. I have to go home now."

"Oh," he glanced out there and yeah it was almost sunsets, "If so, I walk you home."

"You don't need to do that," she said as she stood up, "I can go home by myself. Besides, you've said that you're going to meet your father."

"Can you just stay here for 5 minutes more?" he asked and then swore on the sly because his question. Now he was heard like a girl who begged his boyfriend to not to leave her.

"I'm sorry, Akashi-_kun_. But I can't," she said.

"If so," he hesitantly to ask this one but he thought he should ask her now or never, "Can we meet again tomorrow? I'm staying in Tokyo for three days. We can watch movie or do something else, as a sign of my apology for my attitude on that day."

His words made her stunned once again. She cleared her throat while her finger scratched her ear. And Akashi knew that she was a bit hesitating too to accept his invitation. Well, perhaps she really had closed herself for him—wait, what did it mean?

"Um, I don't know," her answered made him cranky inside, "I've made a promise with Dai-_chan_ that I will accompany him to shopping tomorrow morning. He wants to buy new shoes."

"Oh, I understand," he muttered as he drank his coffee again.

"But I'm free in the afternoon," she continued, "So, do you mind if we meet here before going to watch the movie?"

He could feel the twitch on the corner of his lips as he heard her answer. "Sure."

She smiled. "Okay, see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow afternoon."

Perhaps there wasn't something wrong for trying it again.


End file.
